Dear Reader
THE Chancellor’s pledge to do ‘whatever it takes’ to save jobs is looking increasingly like famous last words.
When the future of a company such as TUI is thrown into doubt following record losses of £1.3 billion in just three months — compared with an operating profit of almost £92 million for the same quarter last year — then it’s no wonder confidence crash-lands into a sea of despair.
TUI employs 70,000 people and has more than 28 million customers, a great number of whom will have battled to beat today’s 4am deadline to return to Britain from France so they do not have to selfisolate for 14 days afterwards.
Predictably, the French have vowed to retaliate with ‘reciprocal measures’ even though their country has seen a spike of nearly 14,000 cases in the space of a week, including 2,669 new infections announced on Thursday evening shortly before Boris Johnson went ahead with his ‘ruthless’ action.
The scramble back from France will have been distressing for British holidaymakers. However, they took a gamble gamble, and they knewthe knew the odds were stacked against them completing their holiday. The writing was on the wall — but some chose not to read it.
So, what next? Well, Greece, our cover story this week, and Italy (above) have managed to stay on the Government’s list of countries we can visit — and there’s always Norway’s uncrowded (but not exactly broiling) beaches.
It’s now likely that the Chancellor will be forced to dig further into taxpayers’ pockets to support the travel industry. This should mean extending the furlough scheme until January, the main booking period for summer breaks.
All industries like to regard themselves as special and travel is no different. But the Government has not covered itself in glory. There’s been little or no testing at British airports; virtually no warning before Spain was put on the red list; and it was only belatedly that the Chancellor agreed to refund holidaymakers in the event of the firm they travel with going bust.
The good news is that the sun has, largely, been shining on Britain and many of us are rediscovering our own country. Long may that continue.